Understanding Juneteenth: Its Significance and the Meaning Behind the Flag

WASHINGTON — On Thursday, June 19, the Juneteenth flag will be displayed at various state capitols and city buildings to commemorate the federal holiday. This date marks when the last group of enslaved people in the U.S. learned about their freedom. 

Black Americans have observed this momentous occasion, which signified the end of one of the darkest parts of U.S. history, with parades, street festivals, musical events, and cookouts for many years. Although Juneteenth has been honored for generations, it has only recently been acknowledged as a federal holiday by the U.S. government. 

In 2021, then-President Joe Biden signed a bill passed by Congress to establish Juneteenth as a federal holiday.

Ben Haith, who founded the National Juneteenth Celebration Foundation, created this significant flag in 1997. He was assisted by illustrator Lisa Jeanne Graf in its design. 

By the year 2000, the flag had been revised to its current design, according to the National Juneteenth Observation Foundation. It was tweaked once again in 2007 to add the date “June 19, 1865” onto the flag, the date when Union General. Gordon Granger rode into Galveston, Texas, and told enslaved people of their emancipation. 

The flag’s design features blue and red colors, with a “bursting new star” at its center. The five-point white star in the middle is a tribute to Juneteenth’s birthplace of Texas. It is encircled by another white starry line that represents the spreading of freedom.

In a blog about the creation of the flag’s design, Graf said that the star represents “a new freedom, a new people, a new star.” The illustrator also explains that the red, white and blue colors used represent a reminder that the enslaved people and their descendants were and are American.

Haith led the first Juneteenth Flag Raising Ceremony in Boston, Massachusetts, in 2000. The tradition of raising the flag on June 19 at the Dillaway Thomas House continues to this day, according to the National Juneteenth Observance Foundation.

Juneteenth flag-raising ceremonies take place throughout June across the country, including in Boston, Massachusetts, and Galveston, Texas.

The red, black and green African Liberation Flag, also known as the Pan-African flag, has also historically been displayed at both Black History Month and Juneteenth celebrations. Red represents bloodshed and sacrifice of enslaved ancestors. Black symbolizes Black people. Green represents richness of the land in Africa.

Over the decades, Juneteenth has also been called Freedom Day, Emancipation Day, Black Fourth of July and second Independence Day among others.

The holiday name is a blend of the words June and nineteenth. The holiday regained traction in 2020 amid nationwide protests over police killings of Black Americans, including George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. 

Despite the new federal holiday status, Juneteenth holds a 160-year history and has been celebrated for generations by Black Americans.

Juneteenth originated in Galveston, Texas, after the end of the Civil War. 

Through the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, enslaved people in the Confederate states were declared legally free. 

“Union soldiers, many of whom were black, marched onto plantations and across cities in the south reading small copies of the Emancipation Proclamation spreading the news of freedom in the Confederate States,” describes the National Museum of African American History and Culture.

But the proclamation couldn’t be enforced in places still under Confederate control. For the enslaved people of Texas, freedom wouldn’t come until after the end of the Civil War. 

On June 19, 1865, Union Major Gen. Gordon Granger and his troops arrived in Galveston Bay, announcing that the quarter million enslaved Black people in Texas were free by executive decree. 

Why it took so long to get the news to Texas remains unclear. According to Juneteenth.com, one belief is that a messenger sent to give word of the newly declared freedoms was murdered. Another is that the news was deliberately withheld by slave owners. And there was the fact that there were few Union soldiers in Texas to deliver the news.

It’s typical to wish people a “Happy Juneteenth” or “Happy Teenth,” according to Alan Freeman, a comedian who has organized a June 19 comedy show at Club 68, which local media has described as the last Black bar and club on Galveston Island. The day after he will host a stand-up comedy and jazz show at his Houston restaurant and lounge, the Frisky Whisky.

“You know how at Christmas people will say ‘Merry Christmas’ to each other and not even know each other?” Freeman said. “You can get a ‘Merry Christmas’ from everybody. This is the same way.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report